Criterion Originals

Criterion Originals

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Criterion Originals
  • Queersighted: The Gay Best Friend

    This conversation between series curator Michael Koresky and author Mark Harris was recorded in 2023.

  • Ira Sachs on JE TU IL ELLE

  • Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing

    1 season

    The thinking man’s movie star, Ethan Hawke has moved seamlessly between mainstream hits and acclaimed passion projects for directors such as Richard Linklater and Paul Schrader ever since breaking into Hollywood at age fourteen, garnering Academy Award nominations for both acting and screenwritin...

  • Dissolves in THE LONG DAY CLOSES

    Professor Kristin Thompson explores the ways in which dissolves allow Terence Davies to mimic the fluidity and emotional texture of memory in his elegiac coming-of-age film.

  • Rebecca Miller’s Adventures in Moviegoing

    1 season

    The filmmaker and novelist shares stories of discovering movies with her artistically adventurous parents and explores her taste for emotionally gripping films that push the boundaries of realism.

  • Queersighted: The Ache of Desire

    The following conversation between Queersighted series programmer Michael Koresky, author of Film Comment’s Queer & Now & Then column, and film critic and editor Melissa Anderson was recorded in 2019.

  • Anatomy of a Gag: THE KID BROTHER

    The following short program, created in 2018 by critic and filmmaker David Cairns, examines Harold Lloyd’s unique approach to gags in silent comedy and THE KID BROTHER respectively.

  • Austin Film Society

    Founded by Richard Linklater in 1985 as a screening series dedicated to bringing experimental and art cinema to Austin, Texas, the Austin Film Society has since grown into a cultural powerhouse and cornerstone of the city’s creative community—all while remaining true to its edgy, eclectic roots.

  • Ari Aster on SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR

  • Art-House America: Maysles Documentary Center

    Founded in 2005 by pioneering nonfiction filmmaker Albert Maysles, the Harlem, New York City–based Maysles Documentary Center has fostered an incredible sense of community through its diverse, thought-provoking, and often challenging programming; classes that teach the fundamentals of documentary...

  • Hands of Bresson

    In this 2014 video essay, filmmaker Kogonada examines close-ups of hands in the films of Robert Bresson.

  • Barry Jenkins on CHUNGKING EXPRESS

    In this interview recorded in 2016, the Oscar-winning director of MOONLIGHT and IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK explores the intoxicating cinema of Wong Kar Wai.

  • (There Is No) CURE

    In this new video essay, filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52, LYNCH/OZ) delves into the dread-inducing mood and tone of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s modern horror classic CURE, deploying a dizzying range of cinematic references to unravel the film’s eerie magic.

    Please be advised: this film contains gr...

  • Secrets of the Hollywood Archives: FORBIDDEN PLANET

    1 item

    One of the most influential science-fiction films of the 1950s, FORBIDDEN PLANET shaped the evolution of the genre for decades to come with its groundbreaking production design, special effects, and electronic score. In this edition of Secrets of the Hollywood Archives, Oscar-winning visual-effec...

  • Secrets of the Hollywood Archives: TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH

    1 item

    One of the finest and most realistic war movies produced in 1940s Hollywood, TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH portrays the harrowing experiences of a group of American flyers stationed in Britain during World War II. But how did the filmmakers achieve the exciting aerial shots of star Gregory Peck flying a B-...

  • Spotlight on CHAMELEON STREET with Ashley Clark

    2 items

    In the following introduction recorded in 2022, Criterion curatorial director Ashley Clark explores the sly social critique and dizzying cinematic experimentation of writer-director-actor Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s lone feature to date, a sui generis masterpiece of American independent cinema.

  • Secrets of the Hollywood Archives: ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

    1 item

    How did classic Hollywood’s special-effects artists create the extraordinary illusions that thrilled and delighted generations of moviegoers long before the advent of digital technology? In this new original series, visual-effects artist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt dig into the stud...

  • Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore

    In 2009, Sean Baker (THE FLORIDA PROJECT, TANGERINE) sat down with the late Godfather of Gore himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis, to discuss his legendary career as an exploitation pioneer and creator of the splatter movie.

  • The Altman Apartment

    Friends of Robert and Kathryn Altman reminisce about their unique New York home.

  • The Universe Is Out There: Josh & Benny Safdie

    Get to know the siblings whose films have captured the frenetic pulse of New York’s city streets. An original documentary featuring footage from the making of their new thriller, GOOD TIME, along with several of the brothers’ early shorts.

  • A Walk with Charles Burnett

    Charles Burnett is an unsung master of American cinema who led the way for black independent filmmakers to tell their stories on-screen with poetic-realist revelations like KILLER OF SHEEP and TO SLEEP WITH ANGER. In this original documentary, Burnett joins another trailblazing African American d...